Menu wireframes

I’m going to create a thread per section to collect wireframes and focus discussion in this next phase of refinement. Props to @r-a-y for suggestion.

I’m going to link each set of wireframes we have then please add any wireframes you have and any thoughts you have on the wireframes. Feel free to ‘run with’ people’s ideas too – sometimes a picture can say many words

Thanks for the links. With regard to your first link’s content, this assumes that the number of main menu items stays the same. The challenge is, for a typical BuddyPress site, there are more and more plugins added (that are too good to pass up) which if installed will make a horizontal menu mess if left unadjusted. The horizontal menu would be stellar if on the backend, the admin were given the capability of binning/nesting added plugin menu items into whichever main menu item is desired. I am not a fan of vertical menus; however, unless re-binning or nesting is provided in the dashboard, AND I am not a developer (so I can’t contribute in that vain), then the general consensus/direction is way better than what we have now.

i brought up another idea on the profile thread basically using a frame based nav.

@karmatosed to answer your question from the other thread here (since you asked me to move the conv over here). no i never brought this idea up before the thing that was vetoed was arrangement of content area boxes the other original idea i had about nav was similar but not frame based. i know its a crazy idea but mainly the thought was to avoid the issue that @fiq is raising which is valid imo using up at least 20% of the width of content area with nav is certainly not ideal.

yeah well like i said that coding stuff may be a problem i can’t really comment intelligently on that bit. and regarding other solutions, maybe I’m being slow and i missed something but if thats the case then i guess carry on

Step #1
Leave the menu and markup the way it currently is. Restyle them as buttons, remove the left margin on the first child so if it breaks the horizontal plane it will neatly just create another row of buttons. The current responsive code can still be used to create a vertical column like it does now.

Step #2
Create “scroll tabs/buttons”. This will be an optional feature. Because you are already loading jquery for the ajax this will require very little additional code and no additional markup. It can also be used in a responsive layout. If js is disabled it will gracefully revert back to rows.

Not only will this setup not require vertical nav it will be close to what is currently in use. That will make it easier for developers and designers to upgrade.

@FIQ: I’d personally vote against keeping as are unless the ‘as are’ is like the first mock up in this thread. Buttons have far more issues format wise and styling and aren’t just a UI style for navigation. Vertical start > move to mobile is a far more effective use of the layout.

I’d also rather we didn’t add more scripting such as scrolling tabs / buttons just to get around a problem already solved.

However, please mockup your ideas so they can be easier to analyse – everything at this point is worth people seeing but words don’t help as much as an actual picture.

@FIQ: Who said lets style buttons – not me. If you have an example to add please link it – that would be more useful than a picture of a car being pushed over a cliff If you are building the whole thing that is your call but it certainly isn’t guaranteed it will be used. If you are building just for yourself anyway that’s great and a link would be good to see but we are discussing things this week in the developer chat so probably be good for you to bring it there or paste before then. Our votes and discussions are in the developer chat which you are welcome to join.